Drawing new Maps of Hope

A video summary and a longer text

Pope Leo’s Apostolic Letter “Drawing New Maps of Hope” is a strong reaffirmation of “Gravissimum Educationis” from 1965, emerging from Vatican II. Both texts point to an awareness that education is part of the fabric of evangelisation and therefore at the heart of the church mission. Education is presented as vital to the life and the health of the church. Leo, like Francis before him, has been a classroom teacher and speaks with a lived experience of teaching and learning in school.

The document if full of imagery including constellations, lode stars, compasses, seasons, and choreography to name just a few. The document emphasises the visual, the way we see things and the way we are seen as educators in searching for truth. Leo uses the phrase “the pedagogy of the gaze” to open up the way that a teacher sees her pupils and the way that pupils see their teacher. That reciprocal gaze in the classroom is the locus for much learning, not only in regard to the curriculum and comprehension but also the opportunity for heart to speak to heart[1] (often without any words). So, it is helpful that the words of the document often point us to images as well as concepts because, in this digital age, meaning is often carried by images before finding its way into words.

However, because images are broad and imprecise at times, they can be manipulative, leading away from truth as well as towards truth. Leo mentions that the truth has always to be central to education and that truth is rooted in the Gospel. He reminds us that an authentic teacher arouses a desire for the truth in students and in the searching for the signs of the times. That same desire works to open the student’s ear to hear their own inner voice, their inner teacher, a strong Augustinian educative term.

Leo presents religious charisms in education as maps and constellations that can hold opposites in a healthy tension through Gospel truth. He refers back to classical education as another source of wisdom mentioning the Greek Paideia and the Latin Humanitas. These broad classical curricula were able to engage with the education of the whole person, usually the upper classes of those societies. But the breadth of their secular concerns were able to raise questions of meaning and truth and build a bridge between:

·         Thinking and doing

·         Compassion and justice

·         Individuality and community

·         Body and spirit

·         Faith and reason

Balancing these tensions in education is supported through charisms that can awaken that “inner teacher” of the student who, with reason and kindness will be able to discern whatever is good, true and beautiful. That inner teacher’s voice is more than just a subjective voice or an opinion because, Leo suggests, it resonates with an inner truth that inhabits the soul of the student. The teacher’s role is to help a student to recognise that truth as they experience it in images, stories, music, movement, prayer, relationships and indeed in all of their life. The Apostolic letter anticipates increasing opportunities and threats arising from the development of AI. Leo proposes a renewed emphasis on Gospel truth in Catholic education, a truth that emerges not just in RE but in the whole curriculum. He encourages the broad curriculum to be more than just a preparation for work but above all a preparation for life.

Leo describes Catholic education as “a labour of love handed down from one generation to another to mend the torn fabric of relationships”. The focus on relationships is a vital aspect of Catholic education and one that each charism brings to the fore through a specific story and a set of relationships and images that help form students to be bridge builders in their future lives. Therefore Leo challenges religious to see their charisms not as rigid formulas but as an original response to the needs of each era. When faced with wars, migration, inequality, poverty and social media education continues to be a major answer, rooted in the Gospel, to questions of meaning, belonging, justice and hope for the future. Each charism is challenged in this document to adapt its original vision for a new age.

In the 1970s religious orders were asked to return to the original inspiration of their founders in order to renew their mission. This apostolic letter can be seen as an invitation to repeat that task for education in an increasingly secular, image-focused and secular age. It is a recognition of the place of charisms in the church, a celebration of their contribution in the past and a plea to be faithful to that broad, holistic and spiritual education that can awaken the inner teacher in each learner. With that inner teacher awakened the student will become more discerning of the truth, less easily led astray and a better guide to fullness of life for others. Above all the student who has a strong Catholic education (whatever their faith tradition), will be connected to the deeper mystery and meaning of life, aware of their social responsibilities in justice and compassion for other people(s).

Therefore, the letter is an encouragement to explore how faith and reason can integrate more harmoniously in the curriculum and can be more explicit in the charisms. It describes faith as the oxygen of every subject area in the curriculum, but that awareness is difficult to maintain in a secular culture where many lay staff in Catholic education have little spiritual vocabulary or experience. The charismatic story of each educational charism has a kind of toolkit for balancing education, one that needs to be shared ever more effectively and eloquently with teachers in the 21^st century. In England and Wales there is an understandable discomfort with the narrow judgements of OFSTED which lead to a reductionist view of the classroom as simply “talking heads” rather than listening hearts as well. Charisms challenge that view and rescue the role of the teacher from that of a simple instructor. The charism captures the heart of an educational relationship and helps people grow into a relationship with their inner teacher and therefore in wisdom and in faith.

Leo has described organised education as a story that began in Greek culture as paideia and then transferred to the humanitas of Rome even before the Gospels were written. He reminds us of that broad humanist story within which our Gospel charisms are set. He invites us to maintain that spiritual breadth and adapt it to a new era perhaps by simply asking the question, “what would our founder do in education now?”  Then we will be like the wise steward in Matthew 13.52 who knew how to bring out of the storehouse things both new and old. The storehouse of our charisms has not been exhausted, and we have much to offer to this digital and truth-poor age.

In this regard Leo recommends that we respond to the fragility of young lives by consciously focusing on reframing education around the following:

·         Knowledge

·         Meaning

·         Competence

·         Responsibility

·         Faith

·         Life!

In addition, he encourages us as educators to take up again the challenge of the global compact on education with its emphasis on engagement with the wider world and partnerships with other social networks. He asks us to take up the seven paths laid out by that compact. Then he added three more priorities for us:

1.      A focus on the interior life fed by spaces for silence, conversation and development of conscience.

2.      Educate for a discerning use of technology and AI, putting people before algorithms and emphasising emotional and environmental intelligence.

3.      Educate to nonviolent and reconciling and disarming language that build bridges and not walls.

Much of Leo’s reflection is rooted in his own Augustinian educational charism and particularly De Magistro (On the Teacher) written in 389CE and is in part a series of conversations with Augustine’s son, Adeodatus. At one point Augustine asks who would be so foolish as to send his son to school to find out what his teacher thinks? Augustine wanted education to help students think for themselves and discern the truth. Those Augustinian educational values are needed in our emerging world more than ever.

[1] From St Francis de Sales and the adopted motto of St John Henry Newman now co patron of Catholic education